It is frequently desirable to cut logs to a uniform predetermined length, either for the most efficient use in wood burning stoves, or for sale as pulp wood, or for other reasons. Marking logs to be cut often takes as much time as cutting them. It is clearly advantageous, therefor, to utilize a means of measuring a log that eliminates the need for marking beforehand. The present invention offers significant improvements in structure, function and design, thereby making such a measuring device far more practicable, and eliminates the need for a workman to carry additional tools such as a ruler, hatchet, handsaw, etc.
Over the years there has been a significant amount of inventive activity directed toward measuring devices combined with portable chain saws. Examples include, Hoffmann, U.S. Pat. No. 2,765,007, which provides a measuring device of predetermined length, having a mounting bracket which has to be seperately manufactured for the various external configurations of the numerous chain saws on the market today. Similarly Johansson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,276,490, involves a removable measuring device, which not only requires disassembly of the saw, but also requires the worker to manually secure the hook in one end of the log, and then walk the required distance while carrying the running chain saw. This method is not only time consuming, but potentially very dangerous as well.
Lucia, U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,580, teaches the use of a motorized attachment for chain saws, which allows a tape measure to be extended and retracted, by using the same power source as the saw itself. This method is not only extremely expensive to manufacture, but also requires major modification to the gasoline chain saw on which it is employed, and may not work at all on the newer electrical models. In addition, Romancky, U.S. Pat. No. 3,531,870, utilizes a telescopic measuring device that is permanently affixed, and will only measure to one side of the operator using the saw.
While the aforementioned patents deal with measuring devices for chain saws, they are uniformly deficient in their failure to provide a chain saw measuring device that is not only inexpensive to manufacture, and requires no modification to the existing saw, but also is adjustable to measure from either the right or left side of the operator, as well as being positioned in such a manner as to facilitate carrying the saw through rough underbrush.